423 



■white dash. The fore-wings of the female are of a purplish-brown, mingled 

 with gray; the zigzag and wavy lines across them are also gray, and the L ttered 

 space in the middle is replaced by a brown spot surrounded by an irregular 

 gray line. The hind-wings resemble those of the male in color and markings ; 

 the thorax and legs are purplish-brown, and the abdomen is ochry yellow, 

 with a narmw, purplish-red band on the edge of each wing. These moths ex- 

 pand from two inches and three-quarters to three incites and a half." 



The only method that can be taken to destroy these insects would be to kill 

 the moths when and wherever found, and to strike the caterpillars from the 

 plants and then crush them under foot. Although they cannot properly be 

 classed among the insects very injurious to cotton, not being sufficiently numerous 

 to do much harm, yet, if left undisturbed, they may so increase as to become a 

 nuisance to the planter both of cotton and corn. 



THYRIDOPTERYX EPHEMER^FORMIS. [Stephens.) 



Drop or Basket worm. 



The drop-worm, as it is commonly called, 

 is occasionally found upon the cotton leaf, 

 but generally infests the arbor-vitse, larch, 

 and hemlock-spruce. It is also found upon 

 almost all of the deciduous tiees, such as 

 the linden and maple. Dr. Harris states 

 that the female worm never quits her case, 

 but lays her eggs in the skin of the chrys- 

 alis, in which she herself also remains nntil 

 the eggs are all deposited, Avhen she closes 

 the end with doAvn, and crawls out of the 

 case and dies. These eggs being hatched, 

 the young worms, after they are hatched, 

 make little silken cocoons, open at both ends, 

 and are covered with fragments of leaves, 

 twigs, &:c., in which they conceal them- 

 selves, and drag them about wherever they 

 move. These cases are enlarged as the in- 

 sects increase in size, and are still carried 

 about by the worms. When they move from 

 branch to branch devouring the foliage, they protrude their heads, the first three 

 segments of the body, and six legs, from one end of the case ; but when the 

 insects Avish to rest, each case is fastened by a few threads to the leaf or branch, 

 and they retreat within. When shaken from the tree by an accident or by high 

 winds, the worms are able to suspend themselves by means of small threads, 

 and hang in the air ; hence the name. When young, they are often blown 

 from tree to tree, and thus carried to a considerable distance from the place 

 where they were hatched. 



The males and their cases are much smaller than those of the females, the 

 worm being only about an inch in length. The first three segments of the 

 body are whitish, marked with black lines and spots ; the segments where they 

 join aie brownish ; the head is marked with wavy lines of black on a white 

 gi-ound ; the rest of the body is of a dirty, blackish-green. It has six pectoral 

 feet, by means of which it moves from leaf to leaf, with its body and case, the 

 latter either perpendicularly suspended in the air or dragged by the worm from 

 behind. There are eight very small ventral and two anal feet, by means of" 

 which it clings to the inside of the case. The chrysalis measures about three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, and contains the rudiments of wings, legs, head, 

 and antennae, like other moths, and is of a dark brown. The perfect moth 



